


Not Coming Back

by meinterrupted



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: F/M, prompt meme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-05-06
Updated: 2006-05-06
Packaged: 2017-10-06 00:42:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meinterrupted/pseuds/meinterrupted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>My dear Faun, we've looked everywhere. The Animals are looking, the  Birds are looking; gracious, even the Trees are looking! They've left  Narnia.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Coming Back

**Author's Note:**

> Written for **2weeks3days**, prompt 'The effects on the people when the Pensieves left the first time.'

"They aren't coming back."

Tumnus looked up, his sleep-deprived eyes studying Mr. Beaver. In the past fifteen years, his beard had gone grey, showing his age, and the Animal's movements were stiffer. Tumnus himself hadn't changed much; his lifespan was much longer than the Beaver's. "You're wrong."

Mr. Beaver sighed and shook his head. He plodded across the room. "My dear Faun, we've looked everywhere. The Animals are looking, the Birds are looking; gracious, even the Trees are looking! They've left Narnia."

"No!" He stood angrily, knocking the chair over in his haste. "They can't be gone. It can't be!" Hooves clopping on the marble floor, he paced from one end of the room to the other. "We're just not looking hard enough. Perhaps they've gone to Calormen or Archenland! Have you sent messengers?"

Mr. Beaver sighed and righted the chair. "Yes, of course we have. But the griffins have returned, and they're not there. Prince Cor was adamant he hadn't seen 'em. I think... I think they went back the way they came. To Spare Oom."

Tumnus reached the wall and stopped, leaning his head against it. "I...I warned her not to go. I begged. Pleaded. But she went anyway. And I never..." He broke off with a strangled sob, dropping to the floor.

Mr. Beaver rubbed his paws together, unsure of what to do. "Tumnus, my dear Faun, it is a terrible loss to Narnia--"

"To hell with Narnia! And to hell with Aslan!" The Faun's voice was strangled as he slammed his fist against the wall.

Mr. Beaver jumped back as if Tumnus had hit him and not the castle. "You can't mean that!"

Tumnus sobbed even harder, shaking his head side to side. "No, I-- of course I don't," he choked out. "But Lucy... I never told her. Never told her that I-- that I... Oh, I'm a terrible Faun. A terrible Faun."

Mr. Beaver moved across the room as fast as his aged legs would allow, placing a paw on the Faun's shoulder. "Tumnus, you're not a terrible Faun. You never were. Not even during the Longest Winter."

Tumnus buried his head in the Beaver's soft fur. "She's left me, and if I'd only told her, perhaps she wouldn't have."

Tentatively, he patted the Faun's curls and wished Mrs. Beaver was here right now. She was always much better at this. "Told her what?"

Tumnus sniffed. "I shouldn't have, you know. Should have found myself a nice lady Faun, or a Nymph. Should have settled down long ago. But I couldn't leave Cair Paravel, not with her still here."

Mr. Beaver wisely didn't say anything, letting the Faun speak.

He babbled on for several more minutes. "It's probably better this way, Mr. Beaver," he finished. "Better that she didn't know."

Mr. Beaver couldn't keep his curiosity in check any longer. "Tumnus, please, what shouldn't she have known?"

Tumnus looked up then, his eyes rimmed with red. "That I loved her. Aslan help me, I love her."


End file.
